Diageo, TSB, Jigsaw: 5 things that mattered this week and why

Diageo reveals details of its drive for marketing effectiveness

The focus on marketing effectiveness keeps increasing, so imagine being in a role where you are actually able to measure the impact of every penny invested to work out what delivers the best possible outcome. That is what Diageo claims its marketers can now do.

It has revealed for the first time details of its ‘Catalyst’ tool – a digital interface that provides instant data to help its 1,200 marketers across 55 countries to make strategic and planning decisions. It has a dual functionality: firstly to pull together different data sources to determine the right budget for each brand based on potential profit and the performance of previous marketing programmes.

Secondly, it assesses the likely impact of planned activity. That includes analysing short- and long-term effects and offering recommendations on where to shift budget for individual brands in different regions on a week-by-week basis.

That sounds like a marketing effectiveness nirvana most brands can only dream of. And if that all sounds too technical, there is much that can be learnt from the company on how to create an effectiveness culture across the business.

Could media agencies be about to face a loss of trust akin to the banking sector?

Media agencies are facing renewed questions over their future. Last week, our columnist Mark Ritson wrote at length about the challenges they are facing, and now TSB’s CMO Nigel Gilbert has spoken up about the growing issue of trust.

Speaking at the IPA’s Effectiveness conference earlier this week, he likened the loss of trust to that faced by the banking sector during the crisis 10 years ago. Then, he said, the lack of transparency hit consumer impressions of the industry. Now the same is happening between agencies and their clients.

Just like for the banks, it’s about the indulgence of what I call ‘funny stuff’.

Nigel Gilbert, TSB

“It’s the same reason – a lack of transparency. Just like for the banks, it’s about the indulgence of what I call ‘funny stuff’. Whether it’s the banks’ derivatives trading in the Philippines or dodgy dealings in the subprime markets or the big media agencies being accused of making undeclared surcommissions on clients’ spending. Whatever the truth, it causes a breakdown of trust,” he explains.

More than a year after the ANA report and six months on from the brand safety issues, media agencies have seemingly failed to address the criticisms thrown at them or laid out how they can change. Until then, the criticisms are likely to continue.

P&G pivots its approach to digital brand building

It’s for pretty damn certain that wherever Procter and Gamble (P&G) leads, others will follow. The FMCG giant first made it its top priority to tackle the “murky” media supply system this year – a process which he says is now 60% done.

Now, P&G is also changing the way it builds it brands digitally and targets consumers. Sophie Blum, P&G’s vice-president of marketing for Europe and IMEA (that’s India, the Middle East and Africa), spoke to Marketing Week at length about its plans to deliver “mass one-on-one marketing”.

In practice, this means the consumer goods company uses big data to deliver more personalised messages on a mass scale. One example is Pampers. The moment mums-to-be start searching for pregnancy-related information on Google, P&G gets a signal that someone is starting their “journey” and will target them accordingly. During a woman’s third trimester of pregnancy, for example, it might offer advice on what to put into nappy bags, or once the baby is born it will show consumers different nappies to buy as the baby grows.

“At P&G we have this ongoing understanding of one-to-one [messaging]. It’s a day-to-day journey. We are there to accompany consumers by having the right message at the right time,” she says.

Can voice help Unilever in its digital transformation?

You can barely move for predictions over how voice is going to take over the search market, and so of course brands are keen to show they are ahead of the curve. The latest is Unilever, which believes voice search will help it better understand the context around searches and therefore better deliver what they are looking for.

“In a couple of years’ time [Alexa] is going to be in every home more or less. The idea is a friction-free customer experience,” says Rahul Welde, Unilever’s global vice-president of digital transformation, speaking at the Festival of Marketing.

Yet there are some that think voice is less likely to be the promised land for FMCG and more likely to make their brands irrelevant. Ritson this week flagged up the dangers of people simply asking Amazon’s Alexa for ‘butter’ rather than ‘Flora’.

Finally, a fashion brand that stands for something

Jigsaw has raised its head above the parapet for its new campaign, taking a stand on immigration with print, outdoor and digital activity that waxes lyrical about the value of immigration to its business.

It’s a bold move in an industry that rarely talks about purpose or values. But Jigsaw’s group head of marketing Alex Kelly explains the reasoning like this: “One of our products could have Mongolian wool, Turkish satin, Chinese silk and Italian buttons, so the campaign will celebrate that diversity at a product level but also a broader level too with the DNA tests all our employees are doing.

“If other fashion brands follow suit then that’s great because there seems to be a lot of fear in this industry around taking a stand.”

Judging by the response on social media, it’s a decision that is already paying off the for the brand.

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